Customer Reviews

The Thinking Body

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Mabel Todd's The Thinking Body is a must read for every serious Yoga student. It's the source book for what's called ideokinesis, a wonderful system of body-mind education based on the use of creative imagery. Much of what I learned in Yoga classes in my early years as a student I found echoed in Todd's book, which was written in the 1930s. It's not always easy to find a copy, and if you can get one for under $20, snap it up.

In a very simple and interesting way,
It allows to see the human body like an integral part of us.
How postures, physical development, connects with
our personalities, needs, strenghts and challenges.
Just brilliant.

Invaluable insight into the precise workings of the skeletal-muscular structure ot the human body and the influence of the mind on its function. Written in extremely accesaible language( to the lay reader), and complete with the original drawings that of beautifully illustrate the text in painstaking detail. Extremely easy reading, yet chock full of the most erudite knowledge on the subject. A virtual mechanics manual for the human muscular skeletal frame and the forces that drive it to bring it into balance.

This is the bible of movement people of the 70s. This is Todd's statement: "Imagination itself, or the inner image, is a form of physical expression, and the motor response is the reflection of it." This book is physiologically based but encourages a commitment to the discovery of and working with the inner image through kinesthesia--the feeling of movement--and that training makes the difference between awareness and mastery vs bungling along and treating the body as something foreign to being.

This book is good reading for centering the body. As a dancer i can appreciate how to center my body and understand alignment.